(a) An employer may award earned sick and safe leave as the leave accrues during the calendar year or may award the full amount that an employee would earn over the entire calendar year at the beginning of a calendar year.
(b) To calculate the rate of accrual of earned sick and safe leave for an employee who is exempt from the overtime provisions of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the employer must assume the employee worked the number of hours worked in a normal workweek up to 40 hours each workweek.
(c) Unless an employer awards the full amount of earned sick and safe leave that the employee would earn over the entire calendar year at the beginning of a calendar year, an employer must permit an employee to carry the balance of any unused earned sick and safe leave over to the next calendar year, but an employer must not be required to permit an employee to carry over more than 56 hours of unused earned sick and safe leave.
(d) If an employee is allowed to use earned sick and safe leave before it has accrued, or if an employee who receives the full amount of earned sick and safe leave at the beginning of the year and uses more than would have been earned up to that time, the employer may deduct the amount paid for the earned sick and safe leave from the wages paid to the employee on the termination of employment if:
(1) the employer and employee mutually consented to the deduction as evidenced by a document signed by the employee; and
(2) the employee leaves the employment of the employer before the employee has accrued the amount of earned sick and safe leave that was used.
(e) If an employee is rehired by an employer to work in the County within 9 months after leaving the employment, the employer must reinstate any unused earned sick and safe leave that the employee had when the employee left the employment except for when the employee voluntarily leaves work without good cause as defined in MD. LABOR & EMPL. CODE ANN. §8-1001.
(f) An employer may permit an employee to use earned sick and safe leave before the amount needed by the employee accrues.
(g) An employer must permit an employee to earn sick and safe leave during an initial 90-day probationary period, but may prohibit an employee from using earned sick and safe leave during an initial 90-day probationary period.
(h) This Article must not be construed to:
(1) require an employer to compensate an employee for unused earned sick and safe leave when the employee leaves the employer’s employment;
(2) prohibit an employer from adopting or retaining a general paid leave policy that meets the minimum requirement of this Article; or
(3) affect a provision of a contract, a collective bargaining agreement, an employee benefit plan, or any other agreement that requires the employer to provide general paid leave benefits that meet the minimum requirements of this Article. (2015 L.M.C., ch. 29, § 1.)